


Stories of the Second Self: Strength of the Word

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [43]
Category: Urban Fantasy - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:47:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22532692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Losing her coffee shop job because of an incompetent manager, Sariel Hayes walks toward home facing more than just sexual harassment by an over-privileged BMW driver. She comes upon a scene of some church leader who, like Sariel herself, also became an angel. Standing within a circle of four expensive looking suburbans, it's clear this minister is using his post-Alter Idem change to rake in followers and money. Figuring on just walking by, Sariel is asked by a stranger to offer a rebuttal.
Series: Alter Idem [43]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Strength of the Word

"Great," Sariel griped, stepping out of the Starbucks she worked in for the last time. "Just goddamn great."

If she had gotten fired that would've brought more satisfaction, but instead the manager screwed up this Starbucks, ducked all responsibility, and just laid everyone off. He didn't even provide last paychecks, and simply taped flyers to everyone's lockers about how to get the money owed from Corporate.

Flipping her middle finger at the door, Sariel then stormed off down the sidewalk giving her light-bending feathered wings a ruffle of contempt. She'd not gotten two blocks when getting a catcall from a car while crossing the intersection.

"Hey, baby!" the driver of the BMW called, leaning out his window. "Love the wings, you sexy thang! Wanna show me some heaven?"

Sariel stiffened her stride and raised her chin, refusing to even put him into the corner of her vision. Once on the other corner, Sariel heard the car squeal its tires, and likely running the red light, as the other lane of traffic was still moving by.

The Beamer pulled over alongside her, and revved its engine a couple times, before the passenger window rolled down.

"Hey, I'm sorry," the guy apologized with an unseemly grin. "Yeah, that was totally uncool. I was a pig back there."

"Still are," Sariel replied, without looking at him.

"I was trying to be nice," he seethed, and before peeling off into traffic offered one more for bad measure, "But be that way, fucking whore!"

The undertone of his voice at rejection brought a smirk to Sariel's face, as she chided under her breath, "Someone just got dumped."

It wasn't unusual from Sariel's personal experience. Before her wings even sprouted, she left a guy a lot less abusive than that, and the first thing he did was find a new fling. Once out on the first date, he called Sariel to try rubbing her face in it, even using his cell camera to show her the other woman.

In one statement, Sariel had deflated his ego by saying to the new woman, "I see you've met Steve. My condolences."

The other woman burst out laughing, forcing Steve to cut the call short instead of Sariel, who relished every second of it.

"These are the end times," some tall guy in a white suit said, standing within four equally white suburbans. "The rapture has happened, and those who remain must strive and pray for forgiveness in the eyes of Jesus."

Since the sprouting up of the supernatural, Sariel noticed more street preaching, and not just the homeless crazies. This guy looked like he was born in a multi-million dollar home. Sariel would've just ignored him, but he spread his wings out, which shimmered with a distorted view of what was behind them.

Sariel couldn't help but stop and watch, as he continued. "For as it is written, I come as a thief in the night."

"Thief is the right word here," someone else standing in the crowd called out, and stepped forth to be more visible. "So-called 'Reverend' Collins is a liar. He's using his turning to deceive you."

"Matthew Ten, Thirty-Three," this Reverend Collins returned rhetorical fire, "But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven!"

Sariel had heard enough, and attempted to circle around the outside of the crowd and move on. Except, the heckler raced over and stood to Sariel's side.

"Hey, you got wings too, right?" the man in a swamp green coat asked.

"I'm not interested, thank you," Sariel answered the question she expected was coming, instead of the one posed.

"It's not that," he asked, revealing better teeth than Sariel would've thought from a bum. "I just need you to make a point to this false prophet."

"Not my business," Sariel replied, and attempted to continue.

He put his hand out before her, but was careful not to touch her. Looking at his audacious, venturing on illegal move, Sariel noticed in his manner a man with better courtesy than she was used to.

"I don't want to be pushy," the man said, "But it'll just take a moment, please. If I had wings I'd handle this myself. Just tell Collins what you think of him. I can tell you're not impressed, these other people just need to hear you say it."

"Look," Sariel turned to him, "I'm not any more heaven-sent than that guy or yourself. I'm sure you know that biblical stuff way better than I do."

"Honestly, that would work even better," the man said, and stood back waiting with hope that she would agree.

"Alright," Sariel gave in, and strode past the crowd.

Many saw her and the wings, and readily gave way. This Collins guy himself picked up on her approach, and held out a hand to her as if she were his shining example. "We bear forth His Word, myself and my luminous sister in Christ."

"Uh, whatever," Sariel spat out, turning around in front of Collins. "Here it is, I don't care if you guys want to be his flock. Personally, I think he's just another rich mega-church pastor who hasn't worked a day in his life, and found a way to get people to dump money in his lap without paying a dime in taxes."

"You could be a fallen angel," one of the crowd called out, "How can we tell who is chosen of God and who stands in Satan's legions?"

"I'm not selling myself as God's chosen," Sariel said, ready to leave already. "When this happened to me my family all wanted signs and miracles and whatever. I can't do that. Even though I can fly, I couldn't get out of reach of park rangers that went out looking for me."

"You're just lost, child," Collins consoled from behind her.

"No I'm not," Sariel retorted, turning to glance at him for just an instant, and face the crowd again. "I wouldn't have wanted to be an angel. This isn't something I prayed for, it just is. When I was normal I didn't do anything better than anyone else. If you find peace being religious then keep doing it on your own. You don't need this used car salesman to buy you a ticket into heaven with your own money. If there's a god he or she's not going to be fooled by this sort of show. You'd still be the person who cleaned up someone else's spill when no one was looking, or the asshole who ran over a cat when there were no witnesses."

Collins rolled out some other chapter and verse, as if Sariel's address was part of his plan, but she brushed that off and waded back through the crowd again. A few put their hands on her shoulders, but respectfully she could tell. They didn't even touch her wings, which was what the usual reaction was by people enamored with Sariel's seeming divine limbs.

"Thank you," said the guy in the green coat to her back.

Not looking back, Sariel inwardly accepted the heartfelt gratitude and kept walking down the sidewalk. Though, she took the nearest corner and ducked out of the crowd's sight. It was a less busy street, and so Sariel took a running start.

Unless there was a random face in a window of the buildings, Sariel didn't think anyone saw her take off and rise with powerful wing beats. She felt that tears would break through, but kept her ascent above the buildings. The only the devoted fawning she wanted was from her dog back in the apartment, and banked to turn to that direction.


End file.
